Space: My first love

Space, this is the topic once again. Space, but the mediums of space and the fascination that we have so far come up to develop worlds and universes and such over dramatic Space Opera's (Yes, I'm looking at you Star Wars and Mass Effect) and how they impact our expectations on what to come in the near future. The influences and the people and companies that lead the forefront of pop culture hysteria over space and some of the unrealistic expectations that we have for it. Ranging from "cosmic titans" such as Mr. DeGrasse Tyson, and ole Musky (Elon Musk ;) ) and the "Logan Paul's" of the pop-space-culture and whether to tackle product, or substance.

My dad and I, at the sweet tender and impressionable age of ten, sat waiting and eager to rewind an old dusty copy of a little known series called "Cosmos". The credits and beginning theme of Cosmos began to roll and I was so enthralled by all the diagrams and local shots and each commentary to be made about space of which I already knew and some that I didn't and all of the jargon that came along with it. Mr. Carl Sagan, a man that I idol when it comes to space and physics, has shown me a great deal and have pushed my obsession with space even more through his myriad of facts and truths about the cosmos that I further wanted to explore. I sometimes wished that this kind of substance of space was encouraged more through my youth and not just with me. Don't get me wrong, I love having these expectations and possibilities that J.J. Abrams and other like minded Science Fiction juggernauts and video game moguls such as EA entertainment can produce for us as filler for the realities of humans going to Mars or traveling at light speed, it help opens ideas to new scientific discoveries like ole Musky shooting a car out to space that has already passed Mars. Fantasies can only push us so far and we have to remember as humans that we must focus on Earth and how to maintain life here before we can move on any further with other planets and other solar systems.

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LIFTOFF!

One of the biggest news stories this week is Falcon Heavy. Launching from famous platform 39A, which launched the Apollo moon missions as well as the shuttle missions, Falcon Heavy went down in history as the most powerful rocket ever.

Kennedy Space Center was lined with traffic as eager Floridians got ready for the launch. Falcon Heavy lifted off on Tuesday February 6th almost perfectly. This rocket is the only rocket since the Saturn V (the one who sent humans to the moon) that could lift 140,000 pounds.

At 3:45 in the afternoon, after a few push backs, the rockets rumbled ready to lift off. The sound could be heard from miles and the shaking could be felt across the cape. The rocket launched, and with it was a Tesla Roadster that would eventually blare David Bowie's Space Oddity throughout the atmosphere.

Much like the space shuttle program, the Falcon Heavy rocket released the boosters from the sides and let them fall back into Earth's atmosphere. This left just the middle portion. After further ascending, the rocket released the bottom part of what was left of the middle section. This part was supposed to fall back down to Earth and land on a drone ship. Later, it was discovered that the center core did not land on the drone, and missed entirely.

Fun fact: the center core hit the water at 300 miles an hour

Anyway, other than the missed landing, the launch was a pretty big success. After the upper capsule separated from the center portion, the rest of the rocket carried the roadster and the dummy to a space trips around Earth's orbit and possibly to the asteroid belt. SpaceX has stated that the roadster could make it out there for awhile.

The Tesla has three cameras attached to it. We can ride around with it for a bit.

You can watch the launch here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c

Hubble and Webb: A Love Story

Star-crossed lovers is quite the understatement with this one.

28 years ago the Hubble Space Telescope began circling the Earth. Hubble launched from the space shuttle Discovery and since then as been gifting us with stunning, high resolution, never before seen images of the solar systems best objects. Not only has it given us pictures, but also discoveries like dark matter, Pluto, black holes and the fact that the universe is growing at an accelerating rate, instead of slowing down.

While Hubble has and always will be an amazing leap for science, the telescope won't last forever. So alas, NASA is planning its retirement party. 

Hubble isn't getting replaced, but merely upgraded. 

The differences between Hubble and Webb are pretty astronomical. Starting with size. Hubble is about the size of a tractor trailer, at about 43.5 feet long. Webb on the other hand is about the size of a tennis court, at about 69 feet long. 

Next is wavelength. It is an infrared observatory which will base its missions off of what Hubble discovered. Webb will have a longer wavelength coverage as well as heightened sensitivity. The point of this is to be able to look for the formation of the very first galaxies. Webb will also have the ability to look inside the dust clouds of stars being formed today! 

Lastly, orbit. One of the biggest worries NASA has for Webb is the fact that they can't fix it if something messes up. Webb will be orbiting 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Which is farther than any maned mission has ever been. As opposed to Hubble, which was so close to Earth's orbit is was launched via a space shuttle. Webb will be launched on a rocket. 

At the 1.5 km point where Webb will be orbiting, the solar shield will be able to block the light from Earth, the Sun and the Moon. Webb has to keep that infrared telescope as cool as possible. Basically, Webb will stay in the same fixed spot. A more detailed explanation of the sun shield from NASA's best web scientists can be found here, https://jwst.nasa.gov/sunshield.html. 

Webb will be launching Spring of 2019! 

But, if you're too excited (like me) NASA has a live web cam feed for those who need some serious space.

https://jwst.nasa.gov/webcam.html

The biggest part of Webb's mission is getting there. This is a video of how it will get 1.5 km from Earth!